Inter clutch at straws against Tottenham

FC Internazionale Milano's chance of winning this competition for a fourth time looks to be fading as they go into their UEFA Europa League round of 16 second leg against Tottenham Hotspur FC 3-0 down.

• The first leg was only six minutes old when Gareth Bale opened the scoring, with Gylfi Sigurdsson adding a second soon after. Jan Vertonghen made it three early in the second half, leaving Inter with plenty to do in the tie.

Previous meetings• Rafael Benítez's Inter and Harry Redknapp's Tottenham met in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage. Inter won 4-3 at San Siro, though Bale scored a hat-trick for the visitors, who were 4-0 down by half-time after goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes was dismissed in the eighth minute. Bale was the star in the return leg, though he did not score in Tottenham's 3-1 win.

Match background• Tottenham's record in ten games against Italian clubs is W4 D4 L2 (W1 D2 L2 in Italy). They have not conceded in their last four games against Italian sides: three 0-0 draws followed by the 3-0 win against Inter.

• Inter's 27 UEFA games against English clubs have ended W12 D4 L11 (W8 D3 L2 at home). They also played six games against English sides in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup – the non-UEFA affiliated precursor to the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League – with the record W0 D2 L4 (W0 D2 L1 at home).

• Of the sides that started the UEFA Europa League group stage, only two remain unbeaten after nine matches – Lazio and Tottenham, who qualified together from Group J.

• Tottenham have not lost in five European away games – a 4-0 win at Shamrock Rovers FC last December followed by four draws this season.

• Tottenham and FC Rubin Kazan are the only two survivors from the seven clubs that were granted automatic entry to the UEFA Europa League at the group stage.

• Inter, Lazio and FC Viktoria Plzeň are the highest scoring sides left in this season's UEFA Europa League, with 16 goals each since the start of the group stage.

Team facts• Inter wing-back Álvaro Pereira was a member of Tottenham manager André Villas-Boas' FC Porto side that won the UEFA Europa League and Portuguese domestic double in 2010/11.

• The only previous UEFA Cup winners left in the field are FC Zenit St Petersburg (2008), Tottenham (1972, 1984) and Inter (1991, 1994, 1998).

• Tottenham could become the fourth side to win this competition for a third time, along with Juventus, Inter and Liverpool FC.

• Prior to this season, Inter had not played in this competition since 2003/04, when they reached the quarter-finals, losing out to Olympique de Marseille.

• The round of 16 features teams from 11 UEFA member associations; eight nations have a single representative, with England and Russia both taking three teams through and Italy two.

• Inter's Rodrigo Palacio is level with Lazio's Libor Kozák and Raúl Bobadilla – who has moved to FC Basel 1893 since scoring five in the group stage for BSC Young Boys – in second place in this season's UEFA Europa League scorers rankings, with five goals each. SSC Napoli's Edinson Cavani tops the table with seven.

• Javier Zanetti has played in 49 UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League games and 159 UEFA club matches – both more than any other player still involved.

• Tottenham defenders Jan Vertonghen and Kyle Walker are the only players from either side to have played all 810 minutes of their team's nine games since the start of the group stage.

• Inter's coach is Andrea Stramaccioni, who stepped in on a caretaker basis to replace Claudio Ranieri last March and was then handed a contract for the 2012/13 campaign. A defender whose career was cut short by a serious injury at Bologna FC, he specialised in coaching youth teams, taking charge of the Roma and then Inter junior selections before getting the senior job.

• Villas-Boas received his first break in coaching as a teenager from then Porto boss Sir Bobby Robson, and later assisted José Mourinho at Porto, Chelsea FC and Inter before striking out alone at A. Académica de Coimbra and then leading Porto to a domestic double and the UEFA Cup in 2010/11. A move to Chelsea that summer proved to be ill-fated, before he took charge at Tottenham in July 2012.

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